1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for measuring biomolecules. In particular, the present invention relates to methods for quantitatively measuring biomolecules by using magnetic nanoparticles.
2. Description of Related Art
Nanoparticles in the past were mainly studied because of their size-dependent physical and chemical properties. However, as nanotechnology advances rapidly, further biological or medical applications of nanoparticles have been investigated. Potential applications of nanoparticles to biology or medicine include drug and gene delivery, labeling and detection of biomolecules, separation and purification of biological molecules and cells and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement.
Because nanoparticles exist in the same size level as proteins or other biomolecules, magnetic nanoparticles are suitable to be used for tagging or labeling purposes. In order to interact with biological targets, a coating layer (or surfactant) acting as a bioinorganic interface should be attached to the nanoparticle. Besides, an additional layer of linker molecules is required for further functionality. The linker molecule usually has reactive groups at both ends for attaching the linker to the nanoparticle surface and binding various moieties like antibodies, or dyes or fluorophores, respectively. In general, the nanoparticle need to be applied along with optical or coloring agents, so that the nanoparticles interacted with biological targets can be detected. However, further processing steps or preparation procedures are required for linking the optical or coloring agents, and extra manual labor and costs are needed for the application of magnetic nanoparticles.